


The Third Sunday in June

by knitwit1912



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Family Feels, Father Figures, Father's Day, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Gift Giving, Post-Season/Series 02, Season/Series 02 Spoilers, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 14:07:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4182744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knitwit1912/pseuds/knitwit1912
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye has a little something for Coulson; just a random thank-you gift.  Totally nothing to do with the date.  Not at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Third Sunday in June

Coulson was staring at the paperwork piled on his desk and wondering just how he was going to make a dent in it when there was a knock at his office door. He didn't have to call to the person to come in; after a moment, Skye stuck her head in the door, her expression tentative, her hesitation so unlike her normal self that he was immediately on guard. If he was lucky, she would just be asking for permission and funds to upgrade the Playground’s servers. However, he was rarely that lucky.

“Uh, hi. Can I come in?”

“Sure,” he said, pushing back from his desk and leaning back in his chair. “What is it?”

She stepped in, her shoulders stiff, her steps tentative. There was a long, thin, white box in her hand, and though he tried not to stare at it, he was already trying to figure out what could be inside it that would have her so nervous.

“I just wanted to drop this off,” she said, approaching his desk and holding out the box.

“Did someone deliver this?” he asked, taking a better look at the box as he took it from her hand. There were no markings on it, no address.

“No, I, uh…I just saw it while I was doing some shopping and thought of you.”

Coulson blinked. “It’s a gift for me?”

Skye’s cheeks were turning pink, and she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear in what looked like a nervous tic. “Yeah, it’s just…something I thought you’d like, so…”

He fumbled with the box for a moment as he tried to find a way to hold it and slit the tape at the edges of the box with one hand, before he finally tucked it between his chest and the sling for his left arm, slicing through the tape with his letter opener. Skye hovered near his desk, but didn’t offer to help; he assumed she knew by now that he’d rather try and do it himself.

Nestled inside the box was a charcoal-grey, silk tie; plain-looking at first, but as he tucked the lid under the box, the light reflected off embossed, narrow diagonal stripes. He tilted the box to see the effect and spotted Captain America’s shield in the same embossing at the bottom of the tie; visible when the light caught it, but still subtle.

“I saw your Captain America poster next to your record player and with the times you’ve mentioned Steve Rogers and the SSR, I thought you might like it, as it’s, like, not super obvious,” Skye said, her words rushing in to fill the silence.

Coulson felt his heart tug as she chattered. It wasn’t the tie itself; it was the fact that she’d listened, she’d remembered. That she’d thought of him and had the impulse to get it, even though she was obviously a little embarrassed about giving him a gift.

“I love it. Thank you, Skye,” he said, looking up at her with a smile that he hoped showed her how much he meant it.

“Well, you’ve always believed in me, and tried to be supportive and helpful, even with everything that’s happened in the last few months,” she said with a wave of her hand, as though gaining superpowers and meeting her parents only to be disappointed by both of them—and nearly killed by one—was something one could just wave off.

Coulson made a split-second decision, and reached up with his right hand to try and loosen his tie. “Here, help me put it on?”

Skye blinked at him. “I’ve never tied a tie before—“

“I can walk you through it. You’ll have to put in on you first, though, I don’t know if I can walk you through putting it on me,” he said, getting his tie loose enough to pull off.

Skye unfolded the new tie, looping it around the back of her neck. “So where do I start?”

“We’ll do a four-in-hand knot to start with, so you’ll need to switch it around. Wide side of the tie on your left side, right side facing out.” He walked her through the steps of wrapping the wide end of the tie around the narrower end, then pulling it up under where the knot would be. 

“Now just pull it down through that loop you just made,” he said, getting to his feet. “Okay, tug it down a little bit, so that the knot doesn’t come out but don’t pull it tight; you still need to get it off without undoing the knot. Just pull it over your head, carefully.”

She pulled the tie over her head, pulling at the knot to straighten out the fabric, then handed it to him.

“Could you just help me fix my collar?” he asked, pulling the tie over his head and tightening it.

“I thought this sort of stuff was Koenig’s job,” she said with a teasing smile as she reached up and started to fold his collar over.

“I’ll have you know this kind of thing was a highly-prized job back in the day. People used to aspire to be the one to help dress monarchs.”

“Yeah, until they figured out that someone in charge of running a country should know how to tie their own shoes.” Finished, she stepped back, giving him an appraising look.

“How does it look?” he asked, tucking the end of the tie under his sling and smoothing it out.

“Pretty fly, AC,” she said, looking as though she was trying to hold back a grin. After a moment, she opened her arms for a hug and stepped closer. Coulson was ready, wrapping his good arm around her and resting his chin on her head.

“Thank you, Skye.”

He felt and heard her take a sharp little breath, and when she spoke, her voice sounded a little choked. “Thank _you_ , Coulson.”

After a moment, she pulled back and he let her go, seeing her blink a couple times before she gave him a slightly awkward smile. “Anyway, I’d better let you get back to work. You coming down for dinner?”

“I’ll be there,” he said with a nod.

As she left, Coulson glanced at his desk calendar, double-checking the date, just to be sure. Skye hadn’t left the base for personal time in a little more than a week, and it was Sunday, so the last mail pickup at their post office box had been two days earlier. Skye had to have had the tie in her possession for a few days at least, but even though neither of them had left the base or been particularly busy in the last few days, she had waited until that day to give it to him.

Coulson smiled to himself, turning back to his paperwork. If Skye wasn’t going to say anything about the fact that she just happened to be giving him a gift on the third Sunday in June, he wasn’t going to mention it either.


End file.
